Wrong Judgement

What is the one thing that we human beings keep doing all throughout our life?

We try to pretend as someone else.

We are never happy with ourselves. We always look out for other examples. Every minute, every second, we want to be someone else. We imitate someone all the time, both consciously and unconsciously. The reason for that is put below.

Everyone has an idol in their minds. That idol can be someone in their family, or some celebrity or just some fictitious person who possesses all the qualities and characteristics that they want their idol to have. All throughout their life, they want to get closer to that character. Hence, they talk like the idol, they laugh like the person, they walk, eat like him/her and in fact their every activity tries to imitate that of the idol.

Let’s analyze this hypocrisy from a different angle. Everyone behaves differently at different places. For example, a guy would try to behave like a romantic and loving husband to his wife, a strict and yet loving father to his children, a good, practical and professional at his office. Everyone have their different “spaces” and they adapt to that situation when they switch “spaces”. Hence the quick differences in behavior. The same guy might appear to be very strict at office, yet very compromising when it comes to family matters. The same girl might give the impression of being a very jovial person among friends but at work, she might act as a workaholic. Whenever strangers meet each other on a train, they all put up their best behavior and appear to be very decent and disciplined, which might be very different from their behavior in a familiar group of people.

Now that we have seen that human behavior is never constant and it constantly meanders between the different types of characters possible, the question is, what is the true character of a person? By looking at one face of the person, should one have the liberty to judge him/her? Now that it is proved that everyone constantly fakes their behavior, how does an outsider know which one is the real character?

In this world where we are constantly judged by the society, we live in the constant fear that we are being judged. And on top of that, there is the additional fear that we are being judged for the wrong type. To give an analogy, it’s something like we hate to be tested when we are not ready for the test and that too, when the test is for a different subject itself. It is because of this innermost fear that we, unconsciously, project ourselves as someone else, whom we think would get more score in the exam conducted by the society. Hence, we do not get, even one moment, when we are “unwatched” and we can enjoy the joy and the freedom of being ourselves.

We work so hard , we use all our spare time to get more money and during the process we lose the time to be ourselves and we keep masquerading as the fictitious, wannabe person, who is constantly fighting with the innermost true and realistic person.

GOLDEN MOMENTS

“I can’t find my red shirt”, “Should I wear my black jacket?”, “Hurry up! We are getting late”. These were the common conversations that used to occur in those days when the entire family used to get dressed up for a family photograph. After getting ready, they go to the nearby local studio. At the studio, they are asked to wait for their turn as some other clever family has already sneaked in before them. As they wait, they observe the photos of celebrities adorning the table and the walls of the studio. When their turn eventually comes, they rush inside hastily. 

Inside the studio, the family waits impatiently for the photographer to adjust the background and the lightings. The photographer struggles to fit all of them in one frame. After a long time (which seems like eternity for the family) of adjusting with the camera sets and the lights and the people expressions, etc, he says “Say cheese”. Everyone, on the opposite side of the camera, gets nervous as the ultimate moment draws closer and CLICK. A blinding flash and everything is over. The family doesn’t realize it’s over and wants to linger for some more time in the same position, not ready to believe that the shoot is over. Some how there is a feeling that some thing might not have been correct. Hence, the request of “Once more”. The camera man finally takes one more shot, not to mention all the hassles of repeating the tiring steps all over and once more CLICK and flash, much to the satisfaction of the people who are photographed. 

The head of the family pays the studio person and highlights that the print should be good and after getting assurance that the photo would come out well, leaves the studio. In those days, since the photos used to be developed out of the negatives, the whole processing used to take 3 days. Nevertheless, during this waiting period, both adults and children used to be equally excited at the thought of looking at the photos when they come. 
When the photos finally arrive, the whole family, filled with both excitement and suspense, huddles together. The head of the family takes time to take out the photo from its envelope, handing it delicately, demonstrating to the kids how to handle the sensitive paper. The photos get passed around and everyone gets to handle them but with the strict advice that it should be touched only at the edges. During this time, it is not unusual to hear sentences like “How come my eyes are closed?”, “I look darker in the pic”, “My face didn’t get enough light”, “He didn’t shoot properly”, “Next time we will go to the other shop, who takes better photos”, etc. Finally the photos are very carefully put in a family album which is stashed away in a secure place in the corner of the house. 

Compare this 3-day ordeal and drama to the 3-second snap of the digicam’s era. The digicams today enable one to preview the shoot, then shoot. If it goes wrong, re-shoot. Today is the world of instant photography. One doesn’t need to be extra cautious, any more, while shooting. It is the world of “Click and Forget” and one is able to view the photo immediately. The long wait of excitement has now gone away. The nostalgia associated with the feel of touching the paper photos and the memorabilia attached to the bulky albums is now reduced to mere soft copies on some laptop.

Seeing all this, I couldn’t stop myself from asking the questions “Have the role of photo- studios declined?”, “Do people still need professional photographers in this era of Digital Imaging? Would the computers kill away the art and the emotions associated with human photography?”

If I am correct, shouldn’t the studios be at loss, these days? But they are not, atleast not in India. I realized that the importance of studios will still continue. Primary reason is that in India, the role of studio becomes very much essential during arranged marriages. Still today, the exchange of photos of the grooms and brides between both the families is the traditional first step for the marriage. The photos enable them to make the first level of filtering. Hence the need for a professional photographer who uses up all his imagination and photography tricks to cover up the physical abnormalities like “dark”, “bald”, “skinny”, “fat” ,etc and projects a rosy appearance of the individual. Even throughout the wedding ceremony, the photographers and the videographers are very much in demand. 

As long as marriage is considered an institution, the photographers can feel take solace in the fact that their jobs are not going to be taken away by any type of revolution in technology. Rather, the technology would only assist them.

Having said all these, whichever course, the photography takes, one thing is sure that we will miss those old golden moments of photography.

Half-Democracy

As I look at the polling participation post elections, I wonder if this is what our law-makers had envisioned when they made us a democratic nation.

In spite of many voting appeals by NGO’s and awareness about voting rights, in spite of making the election day as a holiday and in spite of huge election budget for ensuring security (IPL was moved out for the same), we Indians have failed in our national and most fundamental duty. We have made a mockery of ourselves in front of the entire world. How dare we say that we are the largest democracy in the world when more than half of our citizens do not vote?

Now-a-days, people find time to write and discuss lengthy articles about non-functioning and inefficiency of government. They talk of all those things like “how rains expose the quality of roads in metros and cities”, “how cheerleaders are becoming a threat to our culture”, “how media has become paparazzi”, etc. They even go to the extent of protesting against new policies by making human chain or by lighting candles at India Gate. Not only that, the same people who don’t vote, criticize the politicians and mock at the politics of coalition governments, immediately after the election results.  How do they find time and energy for all these protests, when they can’t spare a couple of hours to get themselves to vote?

Democracy has now become synonymous with protest. It won’t be wrong to say “Democracy is a form of government, where people protest against the leader, whom they haven’t voted”. These people won’t vote a new leader and still complain about the current one. As if, they don’t want themselves to be blamed for the government, hence they play safe and keep their hands clean in the election process. As if, people always are on the look out for a scapegoat, not realizing that they themselves should be the one.

Is this the only way where we use our weapon of democracy? As long we continue to exploit the one-sided meaning of Democracy, we will remain “Half-Democracy”

The Unexpected Secret Test

A young brilliant Indian student prepares all his life to get into an institute of his dreams. It is his paradise. He compromises all his leisure time and toils all day and night and finally he gets a good rank and a ticket to the institute. He manages to get a bank loan and arrives at the campus of his dreams.

The rest of his life story is very brief.

He gets ragged and commits suicide.

Is this what our education system is made of? Is this another acid test that every fresher has to undergo? Don’t the senior guys in their universities have other sorts of entertainment?

Imagine brilliant talents from all across the country who have been respected in their previous schools/colleges getting abused and thrashed and humiliated in front of all. Suddenly their most-sought-after-school becomes the most-loathed-building in the world for them. And he/she had anticipated helpful seniors who would have helped them settle in the initial days. Much to the contrary, they stare in disbelief at the same people, now mocking at them.
Although for many of the freshers, ragging can simply pass off as a humorous incident, to be remembered and be laughed about at a later point of time, but for some selected people, it becomes a harsh nightmare. If these people get lucky enough to survive, the nightmare continues to haunt them as long as they remain in the institute. Their state of mind gets affected, jeopardizing their career. Their perception of life becomes that of a dark one. Sometimes this victim out of revenge, rags the next junior batch in the same ruthless manner. Thus, this infamous trend carries on.

It is for the betterment of these victims (however smaller in number they be), that ragging be altogether banned and the ban strictly followed in each and every corner of college, through out India. We should not let our talents get wasted at the cost of few moments of laughter and sadist humor of the seniors. As of now, every popular college has banned ragging and “ragging” is now a non-bailable offence. But apparently, there have been recent cases of ragging which exposes the flaws in the implementation of the ban. Many more incidents of ragging do not come into light, as the victims, who are all away from home, feel threatened and insecure in the new college and city and do not report about the incidents. In spite of the bans, ragging continues to be operated secretly like a secret cult, practiced religiously by its followers.

One of the important factors that have popularized the art of ragging is Bollywood. And I feel it is the same medium that can wipe out this dirty and dark trend. Ragging needs to be removed from people’s mind first.

Till then, every fresher will have to undergo this unexpected and secret test of ragging

The other side of IPL

When the first IPL had started, there was a lot of hue and cry about it being a threat to cricket (Test matches and ODI). Many had apprehensions about IPL, regarding killing cricketing talent in the country, specially about the bowling and Test match specific skills. Some people couldn't keep off their eyes off the huge money involved and always cribbed about one thing or the other. When there was nothing left to complain, they started criticizing the cheerleaders, as a threat to Indian culture and traditons.Every one wanted to be a part of this drama and entertainment, right from the media people and bollywood stars. In the midst of all these, IPL-1 was successfully conducted as well as entertained in all parts of Indian subcontinent.

This IPL-season 2 is no different from the first one, in the sense that it also had its own share of arguments and controversies and uncertainities,exactly before its start. No one can forget the security concerns raised during the scheduling of the matches. The matches got postponed, rescheduled to different venues and finally got shifted out of the country. The cricket fans (or rather IPL fans) got emotional and argued "How can Indian Premier League be conducted outside India?". Some politicians, knowing it was election time, used this opportunity to argue for poor security provided by the government. Many were sceptic that this IPL wouldn't be as hit as the first season, attributing the cause to the lack of ground support in SA. People had got so busy in these controversies and discussions that they failed to view "the other side" of IPL, which I intend to put forward, further in my post.

First and foremost, the message that I get from the government's decision of not allowing IPL to be conducted during election period is that the Indian government will not bow down to the pressures of IPL, where huge money and big celebrities are involved, thus compromising our security. We, as Indians, have known our limitations in security and hence have not risked our lives just to provide entertainment by a private association, however rich that might be. It has sent a strong message to the money minded business guys.

The next positive thing to notice is that the pitches in South Africa are bowler-friendly. This is unlike the last year where Indian pitches enabled huge exaggerated scores and gave little choice to bowler's strategies and tactics. Now as the matches are going on, we can see the more action coming from bowlers'quarters. Hence, this IPL avoids giving undue advantage to the batsmen gives a fairer deal to all players. This will also help in reducing the general misconception that Twenty20 is just a do or die game. We see many senior players, who couldn't do much last year, now performing well. Apart form these, there are many young Indian faces that have got a chance to test themselves outside India. Thus, they will truly get a taste and exposure of international pitches and weather conditions. Some might argue that rains in SA have affected most of the matches, but it's also been raining in Bangalore in most of these days. Besides, rainy weather is also part of the match.

Finally I come to the last topic of cheerleaders. Here in a foreign country, there would be no controversies to their attire and they have the complete freedom to carry on with their jobs.

Anyways IPL will continue to go on parallely with other forms of cricket and will keep coming back, once in a while, to give us some entertainment and critics will crib and complain all the while.

Question and Answer

Waiting for the answer!! And finally the wait is over. I have got my answer. How lucky am I? Are you jealous that I found the answer to my long awaited question.

A question that has been pending long ago in my heart. A question that used to bubble up whenever a slight hope of answer seemed to be near. A question that kept my heart and mind debating with each other about the probable answer all the time. A question that made my heart heavy each time the answer eluded the poor heart like a tangent. It comes close enough just to miss it as if it was all planned. The question had planned to torture me. It had conspired to keep me entangled in the tentacles of emotions. It never wanted to liberate me from the shackles of sentiments. I was held as a captive within myself. It played with me, teased me like a monkey in the circus being allured to food.Yes, it knew that I was hungry. And thus had used my hunger to make me a joker in front of myself.

The search for the ultimate answer had started ruining me from inside. The worst part of it was that I knew that I was becoming hollow from within. And even worse was that I didn't want to stop the search. So the quest had continued. When the rest of the world did their job and lived happily, I was running hither and thither, spying, tracking and continuing my futile search. The hunt had led me to A deep tunnel with the hope of light at the other end. And I went deeper and deeper and still deeper, to a point of no return. I was stuck. And I could hear the question mocking at me from outside of the tunnel. Was the mock of the question a hint that I should give up? But I didn't heed the warning because I had wanted to fight. I wanted to challenge all the questions with my own answers. I did try to break the tunnel, but the tunnel was strong and the mocking grew louder with each attempt to destroy the pattern of tunnel . Finally I had given up.

I lay in the dark, alone. I didn't get sleep. Then suddenly out of nowhere, I felt that the answer was near. I wasn't waiting now. I wasn't searching anywhere else. My instincts told me that this night the answer would find me. It is the sixth sense that tells you that today is the day. You will get all your answers today. The bubbles would stop. The sadness would be wiped out from your face. There would be peace and ultimately, calmness would prevail over your heart. You will get a good sleep. You will feel lighter and free. You would be freed from all the bonds of miseries. You will get peace on this planet. You will be independent.

Atleast that's what I had thought. I wish I had never known the answer.

Stony Story

DISCLAIMER: This is entirely a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any character, living or non-living is purely coincidental.

There was a stone. Let’s call him Bonnie. Bonnie used to live with the Trees. He enjoyed being under the shade of the big trees. He played with the other stones that use to gather around the trees. There was a River that flew beside the trees. Bonnie liked the charm of the River. He was mesmerized by her snow white colour. He liked her agility and determination. She was his inspiration and motivation. But he never said about it to anyone. All were happy and life seemed perfect. Bonnie gradually became bigger and powerful in size.

Then, one day, from nowhere, suddenly the Wind blew. The River was told by the Wind that she was destined to become great and powerful like the Sea. The only way to achieve that was by becoming the Sea itself. This would be possible only if the River moves on towards the Sea and blend with it. The River, being greatly inspired by the Wind, decided to achieve something more in her life. After all, she couldn’t afford to waste her life by just languishing there in the forest.

Needless to say that the stone was shocked and shattered, when he heard about it from the Wind. He kept his grief to himself. He didn’t try to stop the River, nor did he ask the Wind to persuade her to stay. Instead, he just followed her, as far as he could. He tried to get all the details relevant to the River and the Sea. During this course, he got corroded and washed away and his size reduced. Chasing, he went far ahead from the stones and the trees. Chase seemed to be the only thing in his mind. But the River became swifter and outran the stones and Bonnie. Bonnie, being unable to control his feelings, sobbed. Nobody but the Wind noticed it. But it was too late. Bonnie, returned back to the trees and quietly climbed to the top and jumped off in the River. The Wind stopped blowing. The trees stopped moving. There was silence all around.

The River was too busy to notice all this. It finally reached the Sea and blended into it. It became powerful, strong and larger, just the way she had dreamt of. But she also became darker, brackish and rough. When the river looked around, there were no trees, no stones and no Bonnie. She was isolated. The Sea seemed so enormous, and at the same time so lonely and empty. Was this what she had craved for? She didn’t need anyone but still wished there was someone, with whom she could share her happiness and success. Even the Wind had stopped. She started realizing all the things that she had missed and ignored in the past. Seeing the cold and unfriendly boulders in the ocean, she was reminded of those stones of the past. Oh!! There were several stones in her life and she hadn’t spent enough time with anyone. Out of them, there was one that wasn’t merely a stone. It was a diamond. She longed for the diamond, now.

Today, when one goes for a stroll near the coast of the Sea and concentrates enough, one can hear the waling voice of the River, amidst the noisy sea waves. Every evening, the River sings:

My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh bring back my bonnie to me

Bring back, bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me

Oh blow ye the winds o'er the ocean
And blow ye the winds o'er the sea
Oh blow ye the winds o'er the ocean
And bring back my Bonnie to me

Bring back, bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me

The winds have blown over the ocean
The winds have blown over the sea
The winds have blown over the ocean
And brought back my Bonnie to me

Bring back, bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me

Reminiscence of the Rails

The long awaited train arrives with the familiar whistle, bringing relief, cheer and hurriedness on passengers’ faces. Suddenly the platform becomes alive, buzzing with people and activities all round. Fathers holding their kids’ hands tightly and making way through the crowd to find their way to the compartments, the coolies pushing the luggage in between, with the hawkers shouting, desperately, at the top of their voices, trying to utilize every available space and opportunity to sell their items. Finally the train departs, with the relatives bidding farewell to their kins on the train, till the train fully goes out of sight. Everything becomes as quite as before.

Indian Railways: The one and the biggest entity that connects to all of us in India. Not only because of the fact that it employs more than 5% of total Indians, but also that everyone from all parts of the country have witnessed the activities described in the previous paragraph. Everyone has some or the other experience with train journeys to share.

The best part of travelling in a train is that one gets to meet lots of people from different cultures and backgrounds. One gets to socialize with people with different opinions and all of them share their thoughts and views. Pre-Independence, trains were a major factor in bringing people, with similar thoughts but from different regions, together. Even Mahatma Gandhi used the trains to mix with people that laid the foundation for the independence struggle.
In a long distance journey, one can find everyone to be very friendly with each other and trying to put up their best character in front of others. They kill time by playing cards, discussing over politics, sports and about everything that one normally doesn’t talk about in their daily lives, for lack of time. On the other hand, some keep themselves busy by reading novels and newspapers. There are yet others, who use the precious time in retrospection of their lives. If there is nothing else to do, one can simply observe people and their activities, both, inside and outside the train, like watching a mother scold her child for spilling things or a farmer working on the fields or simply the nature itself in its full-fledged pure form.

The charms of trains are also evident by the fact that many scenes of Indian movies are related to trains, most famous being “The Burning Train”. Also one can’t forget the famous last scene in DDLJ, where Raj pulls Simran towards him in a moving train. Since then, parting and meeting in trains have often been romanticized in films. Many love stories start in train in films, and may be in real life as well.

Even though Indian railways are much behind in infrastructure, when compared to their foreign counterparts, nevertheless, travelling in a train is still the most comfortable and enjoyable ride and every ride is a unique experience in itself. In spite of the tragedies and mishaps like train theft and train delays, memories of rail journeys will keep reminiscing us throughout.

The Chase Ends

Often there are many things that one keeps chasing in life. He/She tries his/her best to achieve them. They try all sorts of things for those. But finally realize that all of them lead to the same dead end. All end up at the starting point. Life is such a maze of twists and turns, but ultimately there is no twist. Everything is the same. Life is a pattern. Everything follows a pattern. Whatever you try, How much ever differently you try, you gonna soon see that it’s been happened to you before. Many times you know the result before hand, but you don’t wanna believe that it will end up in the same way as the previous ways. We all want to avoid the past, the patterns already followed before, but the truth is that every new pattern some way or other, is exactly the old pattern. Déjà vu? No not exactly, because in the case of déjà vu, you realize it’s been happened before, but in this case you also know the result. Everyone knows the result of their actions, instinctively. It is just that we don’t want to believe our own predictions. Isn’t it strange that you don’t want to believe in your prophecy, in your instincts? It is because we hope that it won’t be the same as if hoping against something will actually lead to something different. Sadly, enough, it doesn’t work like that.

Talking about patterns, let me tell you that there is a unique pattern for every individual. Something inborn in that person decides the pattern that would be repeated throughout his/her life. There is no problem in this, as long as the person doesn’t realize the truth of the pattern. When one is oblivious of the pattern, he/she will try out things that are supposed to give him a different way of living. This will keep the energy/fire/momentum alive in his/her heart, and will make him/her experiment everything in his/her life. These people do not know the result and keep their fingers crossed till the last moment and still unable to believe in the outcome. This hope of the unknown result keeps them alive. This section of people is fortunate who don’t realize that everything they do will follow the so called “pattern”. But the trouble lies with that category of people, who realize the pattern before it’s too late. They know the result of their experiments beforehand. They know what lies ahead in their career and how their life is gonna shape up in the future. Though it sounds as if these sections of people are fortunate/talented enough to know the predictions, it is worse inside. Why? Let me convince you of this in the next paragraph.

Consider a guy who falls in the latter category who knows the pattern. He wants to try out a different experiment in his career. His instincts tell him that it won’t work, because the pattern depicts so. Now the guy is in a dilemma. What should he do? Should he go ahead with the experiment, being fully aware that it won’t produce the desired result? Or should he abort the experiment and thus get stereotyped as a coward, who doesn’t try out things, going against the popular Bhagavat Gita (which advises one to not to worry about the fruit of one’s action). Should he then just stop fighting with life and surrender to the mysteries of kismat? Wouldn’t giving up everything abate the fire inside him and stop the possibility of making his life different? To give an analogy, it’s like buying a lottery. You know the result that you won’t win it. So should you stop buying up the lottery and hence end up all the possibilities of winning right away?

Poor guy!!! Will he still keep the hope and spirit alive in his soul? I don’t know/care about his new style of living. But temporarily, “The Chase Ends”.

Dreamers’ Dimensions

The most beautiful aspect of our lives is that we can dream. By dreams, I mean literal dreams that we have during our sleep, the dreams that Alice in Wonderland used to see.

Dreams have played an integral part in the human lives, right from the past, in all the civilizations. How can one forget the dream of a man who warns Julius Ceaser of his doom before his death? Many people strictly follow their dreams and respect the gestures suggested in them. For example, the Hindu king “Harishchandra” parts with his kingdom and family to fulfill the promise made by him to a sage in his (sage’s) dream. Many books have been written on “The Interpretations of Dreams”. Science and religion both have their own explanations for the occurrence and mystery of dreams.

The best thing of dreams is that no one can predict as to what dream one will see the following night and also if there will be a dream at all. So, one has to completely surrender oneself to the DreamLord/DreamLady and let the movie begin. Yes, believe me, it is better than watching a movie. Better in the sense that you can get a first hand experience of watching first day (rather, first night)-first show, because many a times you are the actor/protagonist in the movie and the whole plot revolves around yourself. And that too, free of cost.
The next best part of dreams is that you get to see and do things that you have long wanted to do but are always afraid of the result. The inhibitions, buried inside a person, come out in a full-fledged way. In this world, where society does not permit you to do things as per your whims, you are free to try them, as many times as you wish. This is the beauty of dreams. Many a times, you commit mistakes, or do some grave sins and then wake up and say “Thank God, it’s only a dream”. Dreams are truly, another dimension that lets out all the frustration and also the truth inside oneself.

Dreams always fantasize me. I love dreams. I enjoy dreams. That’s partially the reason why I like sleeping, in the hope that I see a good dream and then wake up and still remember it. I am utterly disappointed when I fail to recollect all the details of my previous dream.

I have jumped from a 50ft building and still my legs don’t hurt. I have tried yelling but my voice just wouldn’t come out, as if I were dumb. I have missed my trains and exams. I have beaten up many rascals. I have died and watched my own funeral. I have kissed her. I have seen ghosts and gods. I have seen more weird creatures than those shown in The National Geographic. I have woken up in the midst of a dream just to discover that it is still another dream. WOW!!! What a variety.

Oh!! See you next time. It’s time for me to glide to the Dreamland.

Greatest Inventions of the Aeonic World

What are the greatest inventions/discoveries in the history of mankind?  The three things that have changed the human race and given Homo Sapiens a distinct and superior identity are undoubtedly “Fire”, “Wheel” and “Paper”. All of them have enhanced and sophisticated the mankind at different times in different fields. Let me elaborate on each of them separately.

FIRE symbolizes both light and heat. In the initial days, fire offered warmth to the cavemen, protecting from the harsh cold. It allowed them to see things and work in dark. It also enabled them to cook/roast food. A secondary benefit was that it helped them to scare away wild animals from their homes. Electricity is the modern version of fire. Needless to say, electricity has been very much a part of our lives and development.

WHEEL signifies the entire transportation. It allowed us to save time and energy and reduced the distances between fellow human beings. I wouldn’t be wrong if I say that wheel led to the discovery of continents, mountains, rivers, people, civilizations, etc. It enabled people to mix and trade with other people from different lands. Even today, we feel the presence of wheel in the form of trains, ships, airplanes, rockets, etc.

PAPER, although an invention much later than the first two, has made our civilization progress by leaps and bounds. Paper could imply lot of things. For example, accounting, maths, science, etc can be called the effects of paper invention. If not for paper, we would have still been in the Stone Age and trading in the form of barter system which needed minimal calculations. Paper actually enabled us to refine our calculations and thus came out scientists and technicians. It allowed us to share/retain knowledge in a more visible manner. It developed the traditional form of teaching called “shruti” (ancient oral based learning) to a modern classroom based education, supplemented with books and computers.

Now that we have dealt with all these three, one feels tempted to compare them and ask as to which one is the greatest invention ever.  Anyhow, all these put together have definitely revolutionized our lifestyle and made MAN as the most superior species in the universe. One might also want to analyze if there are anymore similar discoveries. One might say telephones, but if we look closely, it is a mixture of the effects of electricity and paper. Hence, fire, wheel and paper are the mother of all inventions and will continue to do so.